Middle Earth Ranger Forum

I'm beginning work on a leather work project and I have a question:
How do you keep leather baldric straps from stretching? This has been yea the bane of mine existence.
I'd love to hear if there are any techniques that can help. Thanks!

The best advice I can give is use good quality veg-tanned or latigo leather. A lot of the soft leather is chrome tanned and does have a tendency to stretch. If the center of the leather when you cut it is gray-ish, it's chrome tanned. Veg-tanned is harder and is tan all the way through. Latigo leather is leather used for saddlery. It will stretch a little but not much. It also helps to use a thicker leather. For straps I usually keep to 8 oz (4/32") though 6 oz (3/32") can be used as well depending on the weight to be carried.

Yup - thicker leather, vegetable tan, and not from the belly.
I've been burned buying no-name straps off eBay before, and now just get the name-brand stuff.
As much work goes into anything leather, cheaping out on materials is foolish economy.

Thanks!

I'm doing a scabbard project; the design apparently requires fairly thin straps. I was just wondering if there was a treatment that keeps thinner straps from stretching too much.

Ah! Is this one of those "leather strap cut and woven through slits in the scabbard leather" projects?

I think the answer is going to be "use a thicker (not necessarily wider) strap" - but fiber stretches less than leather. Worst case you can sew two thinner straps together, back to back: the linen thread sewing the two layers together will keep them from stretching much.

Elleth wrote:Ah! Is this one of those "leather strap cut and woven through slits in the scabbard leather" projects?

I think the answer is going to be "use a thicker (not necessarily wider) strap" - but fiber stretches less than leather. Worst case you can sew two thinner straps together, back to back: the linen thread sewing the two layers together will keep them from stretching much.

Thank you Elleth!

Somewhere I heard that some sort of wax treatment would keep leather from stretching too much. I will research this.
Withall, I think that the design is clear for doubling the strap at the buckle, which would allow for two layers. I expect that will solve the foreseen problem.

I hope this works.
https://postimg.org/gallery/25yc3bu5a/
Sorta looks Rangery...